Punctuations

Tags

Punctuation	Symbol	Usage
double quotation marks	“ ”	To quote from a text By repeating the figure “one dollar and eighty-seven cents,” the story emphasizes money. • Period or comma inside the quotation marks • Colon or semicolon outside the quotation marks
single quotation marks	‘ ’	To quote something already in quotation marks in a text Text: She replied, “Thanks.” Essay: The passage says, “She replied, ‘Thanks.’” Note: this is a very specific and rare usage
colon	:	To emphasize a list, or a certain idea or claim I need to buy some fruits: apples, grapes, and bananas. This story conveys to the reader a lesson: love is more important than material objects. • The part before the colon must be an independent clause
semicolon	;	To combine two independent clauses into a compound sentence Della buys a chain for Jim; however, Jim has sold his watch. To separate items in a list in which each item is either very long or uses commas I went to the supermarket to buy fruits such as apples, grapes, and bananas; vegetables such as carrots and cucumbers; and some pork.
dash	—	To add a supplementary piece of information that requires more emphasis than using commas The author emphasizes the lesson—that love is more valuable than love—through the first-person narration.
hyphen	-	To combine two or more words into a single word the thirty-year-old woman
parenthesis	( )	To provide in-text citation "In 'The Gift of the Magi,' Della's decision to sell her cherished hair highlights her profound love for her husband and her willingness to make sacrifices for their happiness" (Henry) To provide additional information Della’s hair (her most prized possession) represents her physical beauty and femininity. To enclose numbers or letters Please submit the following four items with your application: (1) a cover letter, (2) a resume, and (3) a college transcript. On the first use of an abbreviation or acronym John Smith has been appointed CKO (chief knowledge officer).
square brackets	[ ]	To change a quote for grammatical reasons or for clarification The story concludes by stating that “[Della and Jim] are the magi.”
ellipses	…	To omit parts of a quote that are not needed Della saves “pennies…by bulldozing the grocer.”
slash	/	To indicate a line break when quoting two or more lines from a poem or verse Hamlet struggles “to suffer/ the slings and arrows” of his tragic situation.